Ephesians 4, Part 1 | Wade Branch

Well, good morning everyone. It's great to see everyone who's

here with us today to join us in worship and now in our study.

There's quite a few faces in here that I have not yet met and

I'm looking forward to meeting you later.

We want to welcome you to worship with us at any chance

you have the opportunity and it's good to see some familiar

faces as well. Welcome to everyone who's here

today. If you have not been with us,

we've been studying through the book of Ephesians.

At least when I'm giving the study I chose to study through

each each chapter of this book and we've walked through

Hebrews, Galatians and we're working through Ephesians right

now and we're in the 4th chapter.

And just a little insight as to why I I do this and I think

anyone who teaches the Bible wants to do an expository study

is we want to share the knowledge of the word of God.

That's that's the goal of every teacher.

But specifically with expository study, we want everyone to see

and to understand that you could do this too.

You can pick up the Bible. You can read through and and

study through it for yourself, for somebody else maybe.

So in your life, whenever a Bible study is done, we try to

remember, hey, the reason we're doing this so that you can go

and teach other people too. What this this should not end

with your knowledge of the Word. This should only be an

extension, an extension of of the Word through you as you go

forward. So I hope you get the sense and

you might say, you know, sometimes people say things

like, well, I don't have the things to say that so and so

says about a passage, OK, well, I have this.

I I could use that same excuse that I don't have the same

things to say about a passage that Frank says or that another

preacher says. So none of us have an excuse

because there might be some things we say today that you

might think, oh, I never thought about that before, but it

doesn't make me a genius. It just makes it being

perspective and and someone else reading the word and noticing

something different. That's our goal today is that we

will study and learn God's word and that you will see that maybe

you can pick up some studies of your own.

So Ephesians, chapter four, I've titled this a worthy walk.

Just to pick up reminding ourselves in this book there are

two sections. Basically.

The first section is 3 chapters that we just finished and that

was all about what our blessings are in Christ.

It's doctrine. It's teaching about the place

you have. And if you don't understand the

place you have, the writer Paul wants you to be motivated into

action by the place that you hold in the Kingdom of God and

an eternity itself. And so we've already talked

about where we've been raised to, the glorious inheritance

that God has chosen us for. And now the second section that

we're starting is chapters 4 through 6, where he's going to

Isaiah 4 · chapter mention

say, OK, now what do you do with all that information?

What do you do with that? And then it's going to be a call

to walk worthy of this great calling.

And and this section is going to be generally, we're going to

talk about preserving the unity of the Spirit with the proper

attitudes. We're going to talk about

edifying the body of Christ by the grace given to us.

And we may not even make it through that whole section

today. Probably only going to cover

about half of this chapter. But I in the same flow of

thought, he's going to talk about a call to walk in purity.

So to walk in pure life, what does that means for a Christian?

Because we don't just get called to a heavenly calling and then

just say, well, that doesn't mean anything for me personally.

It's just what I get to have. No, it's it's a walk where we

make sacrifice for the glory of God and ultimately for our

benefit as well. And it's a call to walk not as

the other Gentiles. But like I said, I don't think

we'll get through all that today.

So this walk that we're going to talk about was led up to with

Chapter 3. So let's get a just a couple

quick verses to remind ourselves of chapter 3, where Paul was,

where Paul was writing. He says that you, being rooted

and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the

Saints what is the width and the length and the depth and the

height. He wants these, these Ephesian

brethren to know that you have to be grounded in love and the

love of Christ before you can even start to comprehend and to

be grounded enough that you will stay when things get hard.

That you will stay when your own faith is challenged, when people

around you challenge you. That you will grow and be rooted

in love so that you can comprehend the blessings that

are for us. I'll be honest with you, I have

a hard time comprehending the blessings and the the riches

that are promised that we're kind of talked about Ephesian

and Ephesians one through 3. And the solution to that is we

have to be rooted in love, because otherwise we're not

going to have the grounding to really appreciate and and accept

and be motivated by the love and the the goodness that God has

towards us. Verse 19, He said to know the

love of Christ, which passes knowledge, there's part of it

just goes beyond our understanding.

We can't fathom it completely that you may be filled with all

the fullness of God. Now to him, he said, a response

to all of that. Now to him who's able to do

exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, that's a

lot of redundancy beyond anything you could ever imagine

according to the power that works in US even still to this

day. To him be glory in the church by

Christ Jesus, to all generations, forever and ever.

Amen. So Paul pronounces this blessing

and this thanks and this glory to God and that's going to lead

us into OK, now what? It doesn't end there.

Verse one of Ephesians chapter 4 says this I therefore a prisoner

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

for the Lord. Paul's already reminded us that

he's in prison writing these letters, and he's a prisoner

because he's serving the needs of the brethren, preaching the

gospel, and he's a he's serving the needs of the Lord's church.

So he's a prisoner of the Lord. And he urges them to come

alongside him in his service to the Lord by saying, I urge you

to walk in a manner that is worthy of the calling to which

you have been called. So I'm going to bounce back and

forth between the ESV and the new King James this morning.

I'll try to make it clear when I do that.

But this is our call throughout the Bible when we read the word

walk. It's a manner of life.

Obviously. He's not saying you should have

a certain cadence in your step, a certain swagger or a or a

hitch in your walk. He's saying you should have a

manner of your life that is worthy of this great calling.

Now if this was me writing a book about or a story, you know,

people write all kinds of stories and fantasy about a

great calling and if you have a great mission.

If I were to write something like this, I would think you

know of a of a lauded. Or if I had the, if I had the

lauded audience of going before the throne of a, of a creator

who has called me to an inheritance that is beyond any

riches this world has to offer. That this, that when the Bible

describes the riches of this world, it's like it's it's

trash. It's going to be gone, it's

going to burn up. It's it's worthless.

And instead of that, we're being called to a heavenly calling.

Well, we are not only members of the heavenly Kingdom, but where

we are sons and daughters, direct heirs of the throne.

And I think about man, OK, well, if I'm going to walk in a worthy

manner, I here we go, I'm going to do something awesome.

I'm going to do an incredible feat of physicality.

I'm going to do incredible feat of maybe an intellectual

strength maybe, you know, if you hear of all these stories and

and these great movies where people do it in a fantastic

work, it's always some feat of physicality mentality or all

these all these great things you can do.

The last thing I would expect for him to say is what he's

going to say next. Because the things he's going to

tell us to do to walk worthy are not at all the things that I

just described you, feats of intellectual, emotional or

physical prowess. But we are to walk worthy of

this calling. And it's a dishonor if we don't.

But because of all the factors that led up to this, we should

want to. And the first question is, do

you want to walk worthy of God's calling?

Do you personally, not the person sitting next to you?

Do you want to be walking in a way that's worthy of a heavenly

calling? Doesn't mean you deserve it.

That's not the point. But we have a manner that lives

in a way that honors the call and honors what God has asked of

us. Because if you do, you're going

to be surprised at the answer, he says.

To have a walk that is worthy, he first, The first thing we

have to do to have a walk that is worthy is to walk with all

humility and that goes against everything on the list I just

said, he says. If you want to walk in a worthy

in a manner that would, that would give the honor of a

creator and this and this magnificent story with this

lauded audience of the creator of this universe, he says turn

around. He's going to talk about

qualities and gentleness of patience and bearing with one

another that are among ourselves.

He's he's got this picture of someone coming before a God who

wants to live worthy of a heavenly calling, he says, Turn

around, turn around to the people that are around you.

You know, sometimes we're like, you know, I'm, I'm too busy for

you. I'm trying to be living worthy

of God. God doesn't allow that.

Instead, God wants us to turn around to one another and first

walk in humility. It all starts with humility.

No service we could perform, no word we could say, no task we

would engage in would be worthy of this heavenly calling without

our proper perspective on ourself.

I don't have to explain that to you.

For everyone involved in the situation, it's better if we are

humble and it's bad if we're not.

I don't care what I were to do for you, If I did something for

you that was magnificent and I walked around with the chip on

my shoulder, I'm like, yeah, I did that.

Or after I got done doing interacting with you, you would

feel dirty if I were to be prideful about that.

Nobody wants somebody's prideful helping them.

Nobody wants who's prideful working alongside them.

It's not good for anyone. If we have pride in our hearts,

we know what it feels like when people have pride a week when we

ourselves have pride in our work.

It won't be good for ourselves in reality, because pride is a

weak way to live. If I live with a walk in pride,

I don't have God's strength in me.

I'm walking by my own strength, and it's only with humility and

putting myself aside and elevating God.

When I decrease, then God can increase.

Then my work can be good for myself.

That's not the point. But it can be good.

It can be a benefit to my own life.

It could be a benefit to the life of others.

And it becomes a worthwhile use of our time and our energy when

we decrease and give God the rightful place on His throne.

And we serve others more than we look to serve ourselves.

So why don't we? Why don't we walk with humility

naturally? And I think personally, I think

it's because we have a desire for significance.

We want to be significant, We want to matter.

And when we try to take that, it's because we don't feel like

we do. The reality is our significance

that we crave does not come from ourselves.

We can't get it through ourselves and it can't come

through ourselves. It can only come through God.

Our sacrifice or our service to God is only worthwhile and we

will only receive significance if it's through him and for Him

in our work. Significance does not come

through US. He says next gentleness to walk

in a worthy that in a manner that is worthy of a heavenly

calling. He says to be gentle and I I say

this all almost all the time and I think people reiterate this

all the time. Gentleness is not weakness.

Gentleness is not weakness. Charlie, I would say is weak.

Everyone would say a baby is weak by all standards.

Even if he's strong for a baby, he does things that I don't

think a baby should be able to do.

He is weak by all intents and purposes.

But I would never describe him as gentle.

And if you've held him for very long, you know that's true.

He'll claw your eyes, but he's not gentle.

So when we see gentleness, we don't think weakness, because

that's not how you describe somebody who is weak.

You're not describe them as gentle.

We think of an adult. Well, what's what's unique about

an adult that a kid is not, they're old enough to have the

capacity and strength to harm someone.

If you have the capacity and strength to do harm but you

control it, that's strength. And that's the definition of

gentleness. Gentleness is strength

controlled. OK, why don't we have have

gentleness? And I think it's probably

because in different places in the Bible it gives hint that we

try to take control for ourselves of the situation.

We don't think that God is in control either in the short term

or the long term. And so we feel like we have to

lash out. You know so and so will not

unless I or I just get fed up with someone else's actions to

the point that I have to be the one who handles them, when in

reality they're the only person that control themselves and I'm

not going to be able to fix them with my lashing out at someone.

We're not gentle when our perspective is not where it

should be. When we are of the right

mindset, we will know that the only way to change somebody is

to show love. Sure, we have to set boundaries,

but we must show love in gentleness to walk a manner that

is worthy of the calling. Jesus was gentle.

Jesus was one who children felt safe enough to go around and to

come and sit on his lap. That was a gentleman.

And yet when he stood in front of a crowd that's coming to get

him, he said his name and they fell on the ground.

He was the commander of Angel armies that can wipe out the

world with just a couple of them, and yet he is described as

gentle. We ought to be gentle, to walk

worthy of the calling, he says with patience.

Patience, and this, and this whole train of thought is the

last thing I would think to live up to a heavenly calling, you

might say. I would not think patience would

be at the front. And yet it is, he says, bearing

with one another in love. In order to live in a worthy

manner, we have to turn around to others.

We have to show humility, gentleness and patience, and we

have to be there for one another and bear with one another.

Now if this is people you love to be around and you love to

interact with, and you just enjoy that with, that's good.

But it wouldn't be a command probably if it was easy.

And we know this cannot be easy all the time.

That's why it's a command we are to bear with one another, even

when it is not natural to do so, when it doesn't feel like we

should. Even when people are difficult

through conflicts and disagreements, we stay there.

This is basically a call to stay.

He's going to get into unity and the bond we have and the oneness

we have and all that is broken up.

If people don't just learn to stay, don't get out of the

situation you're in because you don't like where you're at,

because you don't like the the person next to you or you don't

like this, he says Stay, stay with them and be with them.

Why does that matter? Because we know people don't

really behave in a difficult way most of the time because of the

situation with you. It's a lot of times because of

the difficulties in their own life.

They're dealing with something on their own end, their own

life's turmoil, their own life's stresses.

And sometimes they're difficult with you because it's just

coming out at that moment. And it takes a a reminder to

stay to bear with one another, whether they're easy or

difficult. And he says to do it in love.

I think level one is just being there for people.

Level 2 is being there for people even when they're

difficult. But I think Level 3 is the

that's where it gets really hard, is being there for one

another, even when it's difficult in love.

I need to work on that because I can be there for someone and

have kind of a tight lip about it, but it takes strength, it

takes self-control. It takes practice to do this

with love for someone bearing with one another in love.

If we really want to live up to the call that we've read about

in the first three chapters, that is beyond what we could

ever deserve. He says look around to one

another and be there for each other.

In verse three he says to be eager to maintain the unity of

the Spirit and the bond of peace.

How do we do this? How do we maintain the unity of

the spirit and the bond of peace with eagerness?

The point here is we cannot passively maintain unity in the

body of Christ or with one another.

It has to be with eagerness. It has to be with an intense and

with a focused effort to do so, because the natural state will

be disbanding. Maybe we'll come together for a

while and then disband once things get difficult.

And you notice he doesn't say create unity necessarily.

I mean, not, not that would be bad if he did, but he said

maintain the unity. It's a unity of the Spirit.

I think that's important because the unity that is in the body of

Christ is not ours to begin with.

We did not create it, and therefore we should be ashamed

if we do anything to disband it. God has intended for us to be

unified. It is the unity of the Spirit.

It is a unity setting forth by God himself, and if we are

eager, we should do our best to maintain that shame on us.

If we break up something that he's going to talk about a

minute is 1. It's powerful when we are

together and unified and collectively on the same page

and with the same goals. He has designed a beautiful

unity to exist in the faith for the enjoyment of his people.

Scripture says how blessed it is for brethren to dwell together

in unity. It's for our enjoyment and for

his glory. He set this in motion.

Shame on me if I let God down by not maintaining that.

You might say God lit the fire of unity and is our God to do

our part in preserving that fire of unity.

The Spirit here is important because it is only by the spirit

and the spirits work in this world by giving us the word of

God that we have unity. Because in reality we would have

no common ground, and we would very likely have every reason to

not be unified unless we all had one common source of our hope,

source of our knowledge and our guidance the Spirit gave us The

Word of God is inspired by the Spirit.

We cannot, we cannot have unity without God's Word.

How else can we procure such an uncommon peace?

Surely not from our own ways. Only through unity around God's

Word. And through God's word may we

have peace in the bond of peace may people have said.

That Jesus did not say Blessed are the peace and joyers, but

the peacemakers, and here the peace maintainers, those who

endeavor or are eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit

in the bond of peace. Verse four there is one body and

one spirit. Just as you are called in one

hope of your calling back in the new king, new King James, here

he's going to give us a list of seven core principles of unity.

I think 7. You know, you hear that #7.

That's the number of completeness.

That's the the number that God uses often in the Bible.

And there's seven of them. The first one is that there is

one body. It is us as the church who are

to be the one body. If we break that up, we are

disbanding a beautiful picture. When we commune, we are one body

and we share in Christ's sacrifice together.

That also means that we are to work things out.

We are one body. There's not another option like,

oh, just go pick somewhere else where you'd rather be.

There's one body, and if we don't want to be a part of that,

how is heaven going to be like if we don't want to be with all

the people who are there in heaven with us, work things out.

We are the one body of Christ. May we not split that up?

He says 1. Spirit.

Like we just said, the spirit gave us the word of God.

It is our one source of guidance, unity and common

support. Without it, we have no ground

for unity. He says 1 Hope of your calling.

You know, we really only have one hope.

You could get a sample from people of all walks of life and

even this room. You know, what do you hope in?

What do you find hope in for your life?

And people might say all kinds of things.

They might see maybe their football team is is going to do

it all this year. They're going to win it all.

They might say. I've had an injury for a long

time. I'm really hoping.

I'm really hopeful that I can live a life free of pain, that

maybe I can have a procedure that I can recover from and get

well. I'm hopeful maybe for my career

plans I'm looking forward to where my career might take me.

You get 100 different answers if you ask 100 different people

what they're hoping in, and that's that's true.

And and we do sometimes lose sight of what really matters.

And I and it's definitely not wrong to have things you're

looking forward to in life. But we can all agree in this

room there is only one hope that matters.

As we were around my grandma's bedside last weekend, she was

just constantly repeating none of this matters.

And she, you know, there's regrets there that things that

she spent too much time on spend too much money on that she just

wished it didn't matter. I wasted all that on on things

that didn't matter. No, I'm not going to say she

wasted it. But when people are on their

deathbed, there's a clarity that comes over them of what really

matters. We all in this room know what

really matters. She said that she's been

preparing for a trip her whole life and she wanted us to meet

her there. We only have one hope.

If we all in this room, we're collectively on our deathbed

right now, there'd be no question.

There'd be no. You know, I got to sort out that

first and then this. No, it would be.

There's only one thing that matters, she said.

All is vanity and vexation, like the like.

The The Book of Ecclesiastes says all of it is meaningless.

There is only one hope. There's only one thing we can

look forward to truly in this life.

Because when it's all said and done, we can't take anything

with us. It's not going to matter how

much we accomplished our own accolades, any of that.

May we live, do our best to live in that headspace.

Could we get distracted? But may we remember that we have

one hope, and thus we should be more unified in our intentions.

That we are one body and there's one spirit and we have one hope

in Our Calling. There is one Lord.

We only have one leader. You know when?

When countries and groups go through cycles where they're

unsuccessful, whether it's a country collapses, a lot of

times it's the leadership. Either people question the

leadership, maybe the leadership is weak, or, you know, there's

an insurrection rebellion. We don't have to worry about

that, and I'm so glad we don't, because there doesn't need to be

a big, big issue about who we turn to, about who we are led

by. We are led by one good and great

leader who sacrificed for us, who is complete in every way,

who didn't even sin. There's no criticism of him.

Teams crumble when they fight about their leader, and we have

a leader that can be trusted with everything we have,

including our eternity. We have one Lord, one leader.

There's one faith and God's plan and God's guidance and God's

saving. There is only one faith.

Jesus says I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father but by me, He says.

There's one baptism. You know, whenever I heard this

either reference or taught from, it seemed like every time I

heard this or I'm sure there's people who taught who went more

in depth, but it was often in reference to you should baptize

by immersion. And that's the only way.

Look, it says here 1 baptism. And that's all they said moved

on. But I think this, that's just to

take such a a thin layer that's like picking the pepperonis off

of a piece of pizza and just eating the pepperonis.

This is so much deeper. He's he's providing core

principles of Christian unity. There is only one baptism.

Yes. That means immersion.

And because there's meaning behind that, what we should

think about when we read this is beyond just that.

We should think there is only one obeying of the gospel.

There's only one contacting of the blood of Jesus in immersion.

There's only one way that we are to die and be risen from the

dead spiritually. It's you can't go to the the

Enlightenment discount store and pick up another version of that.

There's only one way. There's only one way to be fully

submitted to God's way to submit yourself and be buried and die

to our old life and give up everything into the hands of a

loving and faithful God who raised Jesus from the dead and

so will raise us from the dead too, spiritually and an

eternity. There's only one of those.

There's only one submission and saving act of being plunged and

brought back into life. There's only one of those, and

there is only one God and Father of all who is over all and

through all and in all. The 7th of the Principles of

Unity says there is one God and Father of all.

There is no question, and really we don't disagree on that.

Sometimes we need to dwell more on that.

Sometimes we need to remember because it says he is overall

overall is a sign of dominance, but also says he is, through all

that's a sign of empowerment. He's empowering everything to

exist the way it does. He's dominant over it.

He empowers everything that we see around us and makes

everything work. And he is also in all he's not

just a domineering father, he's an involved father.

He's over it all. He's making it all work and he's

involved in it all. Those are the seven kind of core

principles of unity he gives here, verse 7.

But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure

of Christ's gift. This is kind of a My mind didn't

really understand what this was saying at first.

It was kind of hard to to to get what this principle in orange

was saying, but it's according to the measure of Christ's gift.

And the best I could way I could understand it in the way that

made sense was grace was given to us according to a certain

measure and for all of us I can assume for you, for me, this

grace was immeasurable. I had so much sin in my life and

sin that would that would have sent me to eternal hell.

So to save me from that, it took an immeasurable measure of

grace, and to each one of us that measure, the same measure

in an immeasurable grace was given to us in the form of a

gift that we can thank God for verse 8.

Therefore it says when he ascended on high, he led

captivity captive and gave gifts to men.

That's the way the new King James words.

We're going to look at the ESV in just a minute.

But I guess the the way we could simply read this is he led

captivity captive. He took the thing captivity

itself. He took the bondage, he took

entanglement and and imprisonment itself.

And he turned that captive. He captured the trap basically

and gave gifts to men. Now that's that's completely

true. We know that Jesus crushed death

in the grave. There is no nothing that can

hold us but the ESV from what I understand is probably a better,

better, like literal the way it was translated, a better

translation of the phrase. It says he led a host of

captives and gave gifts to men. So this phrase, a host of

captives was like someone who came back from war.

They had won and they would have like a train of of captives

behind them. They he led a bunch of captives

back to his own country. Well, with Jesus, it's not that

He led prisoners. He led us who were prisoners

free. And so both principles are true

that He took imprisonment and captivity, and He trapped that,

and He took that away. He took its power away.

But it's also true that He took you and I who were prisoners,

and He led us out of that darkness and out of that.

Entanglement in the prisons of sin really carries the same

meaning overall. And he gave gifts to men.

When I think about captivity, though I there's a lot of

different things that that means.

And as some of us were talking the other day, what does that

mean? That captivity.

And there's a lot of layers to that.

The first one I think of as freedom from the captivity of

the Old Testament law and it was captivity as we studied in

Hebrews because and and in Galatians because it was

conviction of your sin without a savior.

Yet there was no new law and savior yet to to free us from

that captivity to Sin City. We're free from the Old

Testament law and as part of that we're free from the need

for self righteousness. It proved that we cannot be

righteous on our own and we're free from the need for that to

be the case. As I thought about captivity

though, I thought about we're free from the captivity of

life's limitations. I've got my career set.

I've got pretty much as far as I think I'm going to go in my

career now. I'm just going to stay in it,

and that's OK. Life's limitations can make some

people feel like I got to do something more.

I got to do something next, I got to do this, I got to do

that. But you're limited with time and

money and and energy and age. Life's limitations can can be a

problem for people, but we are free from captivity.

To that it doesn't matter because my significance is not

in myself. I'm I'm free from the captivity

to my own sin, and as an extension of that, from my own

mind. When we get our own head and we

get stuck in cycles of sin, that's captivity.

That's bondage to sin, that's entrapment, and my own cycles

that make my life miserable because of sin.

I'm free from that. And praise God that he led me

free and he took that captivity away and the power that it had

over my life. We're almost done here.

Verse 9. Now this He ascended.

When I said he ascended on high and LED captivity captive.

Now this he ascended. What does it mean?

But that he has also first descended into the lower parts

of the earth. And that's just basic logic that

for him to have ascended into heaven after it's all done, he

had to 1st come down here. And there's several things that

this phrase means. I think the primary meaning of

this phrase, that he went to the lower parts, is reference to

Hades. So we know that when we die, we

either go to one of two places. We go to paradise, which is part

of Hades, or Tartarus, which is the torments that we read about

from the rich man where Lazarus was in Paradise and comforted,

but the rich man Lazarus or the rich man was sent to Tartarus

and there was a great gulf put between them.

We learn about Jesus who said this day you will be with me in

paradise and he was talking to the thief on the cross.

So I think primarily or maybe First off he's talking about

Hades and how he was in the lower parts of the earth.

And from what I understand that's what the Jews really

thought of Hades as is the lower part.

But secondarily, I think it could also mean the womb.

And there's language throughout the Bible, like Psalm 139, where

the psalmist says, I praise you for I am fearfully and

wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works.

My soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you

when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths

of the earth, so that lower parts at depths of the earth,

that could also be where Jesus was, was ascended from.

Because all this is true, it could also be the heart of the

earth. Matthew 12, verse 40 refers to

Matthew 12:40

the grave as the heart of the earth, but it could also mean

the earthly realm. Jesus being incarnated, he came

down to earth itself. So all these things are true.

It's all part of what Jesus descended to.

He became a fetus and humbled himself in the form of a man on

earth as an incarnated man, and he ended up going to the grave.

He wanted to even it down as far as Hades, the realm of the dead.

But the psalmist says you will not leave my soul in Hades or

she'll. And he didn't stay there.

But then he ascended. He who descended is also the one

who ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all

things. And part of the reason I think

it's OK to interpret all that way, it's because he said parts

of the earth. There's many ways in which Jesus

went from the lower parts of the earth and it says that he and I

think that's OK because it magnifies the next party says

far above all the heavens. What does it mean, all the

heavens? There is 3 different heavens in

the Bible. There's the atmosphere, there's

space and there's the the place of God where he dwells.

In Genesis one, verse 20, we learn the atmosphere, space is

where the stars are and Genesis 22 verse 17 is where we find

Genesis 22:17

that. But then we also read of another

heaven, the highest heaven as First Kings 8 verse 27 puts it.

1 Kings 8:27

And that's where Jesus went. Hebrews 9 verse 24 says, For

Hebrews 9:24

Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere

copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in

the presence of God for us. And that's from the NASB.

And he didn't just come back into heaven and you know, he

came back to his old company and he had to start from the bottom

again. No, he came back into heaven and

he was set at the right hand of God first.

1 Peter 3:22

Peter 3 verse 22 says having gone into heaven after angels

and authorities and powers have been subjected to him, he had

all authority. When he came back to be the

right hand of the Father, that's the emphasis.

He was above all the heavens and he bought, He went back to his

rightful place on the throne. Why did he do this?

So he could come back into power and get back at everybody.

No, he did it because he had to go back to his power so that he

could continue to fill all things.

In Hebrews one verse three, we read that he upholds all things

and Colossians. One verse 17 In him all things

are held together. The ESV says Jesus came back and

rose from the dead and ascended to his place in authority

because he has to hold all the things together.

He has all power and might. I don't think Jesus ever had a

lapse in power, but I don't think it was an accident that

the heavens or that the earth shook and the sun was darkened

when Jesus was dying as a message that you're killing the

person who's holding all this together.

He never lost power, even through the grave.

He never lost power, but he upholds all things and he

himself gave Well, we're going to hold off there.

We're going to pause there and we're going to pick that up next

time. We're going to cover the

second-half of the chapter, but there's going to be things.

He holds all things together on earth, but he also holds all

things together in the body of Christ and in the church that is

built. And we're going to talk about

that next time, learning about what Jesus gave him, gave to our

to the body and what he put in order for our betterment.

Thank you for your attention today.

I hope this has been beneficial for you as we consider How am I

going to go forward? How am I going to read about the

promises of a heavenly calling and just sit here in my

comfortable chair and do nothing about it?

We don't have to. We can live in a way that is

worthy. And it doesn't have to be some

amazing feat that you can't do starting today.

You can start today if you've been added to the body of

Christ. Go on your way if you're not,

you can hear the word. Believe that Jesus Christ is the

Son of God. Repent of your past life and say

I'm going to turn to do God's way.

Just like we've talked today, confessing that Jesus Christ is

the Son of God, there's no other way to be saved and being

baptized, that one baptism into Jesus for the remission of our

sins. And if you would need some

prayers of the Brethren to make something right that you feel

like has been public, or if you need the prayers of the church,

please come forward while we stand and sing.

We thank you for listening to our podcast put on by the Church

of Christ at 2215 Plans Rd. in Bakersfield.

If you would like any additional information or you would like to

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